Pet Sematary II
(1992) 100 Min.
Rated: R (gore, nudity)
Director: Mary Lambert
Stars: Edward Furlong, Anthony Edwards, Clancy Brown
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
A kid’s mom dies and he moves to a small town with a supernatural dark past relating to a pet cemetery.
Synopsis:
Young Jeff Matthews (Furlong) is witness to the accidental electrocution of his mother, actress Renee Hallow, on the set of her new film. After her death, Chase Matthews (Edwards) and his son move to their summer home in Maine.
Chase is a veterinarian and moves his practice into an old animal hospital. Jeff is looking around when he finds a box of kittens and decides to keep one as a pet. Meanwhile, a dog from some townsfolk comes in and chases the kitten. The dog, Zowie, belongs to Drew Gilbert. Drew has a strained relationship with his step-dad Gus Gilbert (Brown) who is the sheriff. Chase takes a look at some wounds on Zowie and lets her go home.
While at school with his kitten, Jeff gets his cat stolen by the school bullies. They take him to a local pet cemetery and hide his cat. Jeff gets in a fight with the lead bully and retrieves his pet.
At the Gilbert home, Gus raises rabbits and keeps them fenced in, but Zowie likes to get too close to the cage. Gus ends up shooting Zowie in a rage and Drew sits with Zowie as he dies of his wounds. Later, Drew and Jeff bury Zowie in the Indian burial grounds behind the pet cemetery.
Drew tells his step-dad, Gus, that he buried Zowie, but later that night Zowie appears. Zowie is growling and his eyes grow red. Gus gets angry, thinking Drew lied to him. Since Zowie is still bloody they take him to Chase. Chase decides to keep Zowie for observation. A few days later he notes that Zowie isn’t healing and he can’t seem to hear his heart beating.
It’s Halloween and the neighborhood kids gather at the pet cemetery to exchange stories around a campfire. Gus gets wind of it and beaks up the party. Kids scatter everywhere. Gus starts to beat on Drew. Just as Gus is about to hit Drew with a large wooden cross, Zowie appears and attacks Gus. Zowie rips a hole in Gus’ neck and he dies. Feeling responsible Drew and Jeff decide to bury Gus in the sacred burial grounds.
Gus returns that night and bandages his wounds. He also forces himself on Drew’s mom, Amanda. The next day Drew tells Jeff that Gus is acting like he no longer hates him. Meanwhile at the vet’s office Chase is told the blood sample he took from Zowie is from a dead animal. It seems that Zowie also escaped from his cage and ate some kittens.
Chase goes to see the vet, Yolander, whose building he now works in. Dr.Yolander understands the symptoms Zowie has and talks about the Creed family and their cat Church. Yolander advises that Chase leaves town.
Back at Drew’s home, Gus has killed and skinned a lot of the rabbits.
Chase dreams of having sex with his dead wife and instead he gets attacked by Zowie. Chase manages to throw Zowie off and shoots at him, but Zowie escapes.
Meanwhile the town bully, Clyde, tries to hurt Jeff but Gus comes along. Gus makes Jeff leave and then kills Clyde. Drew happens to witness the murder and Gus runs after him. They make it to the house and even Zowie is trying to attack Drew. Drew manages to escape the house just as Amanda Gilbert pulls up in her car. He jumps into her car as Gus starts attacking it. Amanda drives off, but Gus is in pursuit in his sheriff car. He pushes their car into the path of a large truck coming the opposite direction. The car is crushed under the truck and its cargo of crates upon crates of potatoes. Amanda and Drew are killed. Gus then finds Clyde’s body and takes it so that he can bury it in the burial grounds.
Chase and Jeff talk later and it seems that Jeff wants his mother to come back to life. Chase is told that his wife’s grave has been opened and Gus took the body. Chase rushes over to Gus’ house where he’s attacked by Zowie and wounded. He manages to shoot Zowie, killing him. He brawls with Gus who claims he had Renee first. (They had dated before she met Chase). Chase manages to shoot Gus in the head, killing him.
Chase drives home to find Jeff and Renee in the attic at home. Renee has killed the housekeeping girl and Jeff just wants his mom back. Renee tells Jeff to go away while she works things out with Chase. As he’s about to leave, Clyde appears. He attacks Jeff and knocks out Chase temporarily. Renee starts a fire in the attic. Jeff manages to kill Clyde by shoving a sparking wire into his mouth. Jeff then pulls Chase out of the burning house. Renee dies in the fire.
Chase and Jeff decide to pack up and leave the town.
Review:
This film is kind of a re-tread of the first film, and it was done better the first time, too. The idea that Jeff increasingly wants his mother back to life isn’t conveyed well. I mean he sees how shitty Zowie and Gus are and yet he still wants his mom back? She’s been dead for quite some time.
I don’t quite understand why no one else in town questions why Gus is filthy and has a bandage on his neck after he’s a zombie. Clancy Brown as Gus chews the scenery and really seems to be enjoying the role.
Even though this story involves kids it’s not quite as fun as other horror movies with kids like Monster Squad, The Gate, or The People Under the Stairs. I mean, one of the kids dies in the movie and you don’t really feel a great sense of loss. It’s not dwelled on at all.
I guess it feels like an over all weaker script and weaker amount of character development compared to the original film. For a moment I thought the zombies just wanted to populate the town with more zombies like Dead & Buried. There wasn’t that malicious undertone in the film until the very end. It was more like “Oops! We keep making mistakes!” which doesn’t seem plausible.
I wouldn’t really recommend the film at all, unless you really want to see a car just utterly buried in potatoes in one scene.